Summer
by The Hallowed Cat
Summary: Remus Lupin and the long, boring summer Holiday.


Absence – as the proverb goes – makes the heart grow fonder, and it is true.  
For when you are separated from a loved one all their bad habits and little idiosyncrasies fade away or are diminished and all you can remember of them are the good points, the points that made you fall in love with them in the first place.  
  
Remus thought he might be going mad, lying in bed and refusing to move despite the delicious smell of cooking wafting up the stairs from the kitchen – bacon, toast and sausages.  
He'd come home from Hogwarts, crawled into his room and stayed there, hidden beneath the covers.  
His mother, tutting, had talked about teenagers having black moods and his father had joked about Remus being homesick for his school books but both of them where wrong.  
  
The truth was Remus had nothing to do, no reason to go outside, no-one to talk to despite his mother's insistence that a very pretty girl had moved in down the road while he'd been away at school. He was waiting, counting the days until the holidays would end and he could go back to school and his friends.  
To Sirius.  
  
His mother had forbidden Remus any contact with Sirius, and by proxy James and Peter, after the summer fiasco a year ago when Sirius had announced himself a homosexual and Remus had followed suit. Mrs. Lupin, rather naively, believed Remus had fallen to pear pressure and that if her son was kept away from rogue elements like Sirius Black he would soon realise that he was not that way inclined and settle down with a pretty girl from the village.  
Remus had already ruined her dreams once before by being a werewolf ('What right thinking girl marries a werewolf?' She'd shrieked at her husband.) but love was blind and Remus was smart and elegant, some girl would snap him up and wouldn't mind that once a month he was a little… ratty.  
But no girl in her right mind would marry him if he went around saying he was a homosexual! It just wasn't done.  
  
So Remus spent the summer hiding away from his mother and her good natured attempts to force him into heterosexuality, writing letters to his friends and felling miserable. The letters he received back from his friends told him they where enjoying themselves, completely, without him – Peter had met a girl, James had been to the Quidditch World Cup in France and Sirius had been restoring an old Muggle Motorbike. He'd even sent photographs of it.  
  
Remus felt incessantly jealous of all of them, especially the bike.  
  
One Wednesday in the never ending summer holiday Mrs. Lupin donned her hat and coat and went shopping, kissing her husband goodbye on the cheek and waving up the stairs to Remus's closed bedroom door.  
  
Once he was sure she was gone Remus slipped downstairs, ignored by his father who was engrossed in the Daily Prophet, and made himself breakfast. Just as he was finishing the remains of a bacon sandwich, smacking his lips and licking his fingers, something roared up the road directly outside the kitchen window.  
Something made of chrome and leather seats, gleaming in the morning sunrise and Remus dropped his plate into the sink where it broke. The bike, Sirius bike, and Sirius.  
Slamming the front door open Remus ran, barefoot, the little chips of the road cutting into his feet but he didn't feel them, didn't care because Sirius was here and that mattered more than a few cuts and scratches.  
  
Sirius had just removed his helmet when Remus reached him and throw himself at him, Sirius dropped it and it rolled on the ground at his feet.  
"Missed you." Remus murmured into Sirius's jacket clad shoulder, arms wrapped tightly around his waist.  
"I missed you too." Sirius said, sounding slightly amused but he hugged Remus back just as fiercely.  
Remus glanced away quickly, looking at the rows of houses that made up his street, at there net curtained windows, illuminated in there picturesque-ness by the morning sun, and then kissed him.  
  
Mrs. Lupin was shopping in the local grocery store, weighing up broccoli, when she came across an interesting conversation for her to eavesdrop upon.  
"Yes," Mrs. Peterson from number 10 was saying. "Out in the street, and he was all in leather too. With a bike!"  
"Well I never." Miss Davies from number 11. "He always seemed like such a nice boy.  
"You can never tell can you." Mrs Peterson said thoughtfully. "Disgusting though, isn't it? Two boys like them."  
"But really, Remus Lupin?"  
Mrs. Lupin decided this was the moment to throw herself into the conversation.  
"What's he been doing?" she demanded angrily.  
The two other women looked guiltily at each other, ashamed to have been caught gossiping and with the object of their gossips mother so close by, before Mrs. Peterson leant over conspiratorially.  
  
"Remus!" Mrs. Lupin's voice rang out, barking the tranquillity of the little house. She stormed into the kitchen, red faced, and slammed down her shopping basket on the table. Mr. Lupin appeared from behind his newspaper.  
"Remus is out." He said, his eyes never leaving an interesting article about a well-to-do minister, a call girl and some illegal magic substances.  
"With whom?" Mrs. Lupin asked icily.  
"His friend from school. Sosic, Sires, Sirius! That's it."  
Mrs Lupin had to go and have a nice up of tea to recover her nerves, but not before she'd given her husband a good talking too.  
  
Remus buried his head in Sirius shoulder and screamed, delighted and terrified. The bike roared through the peaceful English countryside, destroying the peaceful morning tranquillity and leaving a stirring world in its wake. The two boys upon it pressed close together, escaping at least for this moment, away from parents, popular prejudice and twitching net curtains.  
Just two boys on a bike and a long, hot, summer holiday to be made the most of.


End file.
